Who, or what, was responsible for the deaths on the island?
'Who, or what, was responsible for the deaths on the island?'
In this essay I will try to identify who or what was responsible for the deaths on the island in Lord of the Flies. I will be looking at individuals, groups of boys and external factors, such as the fact that there were no adults to keep them in order, the fact that they were moving towards savagery the longer they were on the island, and also the war that was going off in the outside world.
In Lord of the Flies, order, civilization and productive leadership are represented through Ralph, one of the main characters. Whilst most of the other boys are interested in playing, having fun, and avoid work at the beginning of the novel, Ralph sets about building huts and maximising their chances of being rescued.
However, as the book progresses and the groups turn to savagery, Ralf's power and influence over the other boys declines as Jack's power increases. Eventually, all the boys except Piggy leave Ralph's group for Jack's, and Ralph is left alone to be hunted by Jack's tribe. Ralph never seriously considered joining Jacks tribe to save him self, and it is his willpower to be an individual and do what is right that saves the boys from the evil of the island. An attempt to smoke Ralph out of his hiding place sets the island on fire and is spotted by the British Navy.
Ralph was simply unable to understand why the other boys would give in to base instincts of bloodlust and barbarism. The sight of the hunters chanting and dancing is baffling and distasteful to him. But when he himself took part in a hunt, he is swept away by the thrill of it all. When he attends Jack's feast, he is swept away by the frenzy, dancing on the edge of the group, and participating in the killing of Simon. This first hand knowledge of evil that exists within him, as it does all humans, despaired him, and put him into depression for several chapters.
Jack, who was strong-willed and egomaniacal, is William Golding's representation of savagery, violence and power. From the very beginning, he desired power above all things. He was furious when he lost the election to Ralph and continually pushed the boundaries of his co-leader partnership with Ralph. Earlier on Jack retains the sense of moral propriety and behaviours that was instilled to him by society-after all, he was the leader of the choirboys.
Jack soon becomes obsessed with hunting, and devotes himself to the task, painting himself like a barbarian and giving himself over to bloodlust. The savage ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Jack, who was strong-willed and egomaniacal, is William Golding's representation of savagery, violence and power. From the very beginning, he desired power above all things. He was furious when he lost the election to Ralph and continually pushed the boundaries of his co-leader partnership with Ralph. Earlier on Jack retains the sense of moral propriety and behaviours that was instilled to him by society-after all, he was the leader of the choirboys.
Jack soon becomes obsessed with hunting, and devotes himself to the task, painting himself like a barbarian and giving himself over to bloodlust. The savage Jack became, the better he could control the rest of the group, as they all feared him, with the exception of Ralph, Piggy and Simon.
Towards the end, Jack learnt that he could control all the littluns by using their fear of the beast. This gave William Golding a chance to explore how religion and superstition can be used as instruments of power. Jacks love of authority and violence were intimately connected, as each enabled him to feel powerful.
If Ralph stands at one of the line with civilization and Jack stands at the other line with savagery, then this causes Simon not to be on the line at all. Unlike all the other boys he stood on a different plane from every other character in the novel. Simon seems to represent a kind of spiritual human goodness that is deeply connected with nature, which is in its own way as primal as Jacks evilness.
Alone of all the children in the book, Simon acted morally, not out of shame but because he believed in its inherent value. He was the first to realise the problems posed by the beast, and the Lord of the Flies-That is, the monster on the island was not some physical beast, but rather a savagery that lurks within each human being. The idea found representation in the sow's head, and eventually stands as the moral conclusion of the novel.
His brutal murder by the other boys indicated the shortage of that goodness overwhelming abundance of Evil. The main problem of the book is the idea of inherent human evil, which eventually killed Simon's essential human goodness.
A whiny, intellectual boy, Piggy's initiative frequently lead to innovation, such as the makeshift sundial, which the boys used to tell time. Piggy represented the scientific rational side of civilization.
Roger's character was a sadistic cruel older boy who brutalized the littluns, and murdered piggy by eventually rolling the boulder on him, which was a deliberate and spiteful action.
A pair of twins closely allied with Ralph, Samneric were always together and were often treated as a single entity by the other boys. They were young and easily excitable and were subjected to manipulation and coercion by Jack and his cronies.
Overall, I believe that there was no certain individual boy responsible for the deaths on the island. I think that, in their own peculiar way, they were all responsible for the deaths.
This is because all the boys represent different aspects of life, and all the different aspects of life are needed to create evil. What I am trying to say is that you cannot have evil without innocence and purity; otherwise there wouldn't anything to make evil what it has become.
Due to this reasoning, I don't think there would be any particular group of boys responsible either, as all the groups of boys had different boys with different personalities, and different reasoning to what is right and wrong, what is good and evil, and what is reality and fiction.
Because there were no adults on the island, the boys were having to decide what was right and wrong by themselves, and this is a huge responsibility for boys of there age, so I am not surprised that they moved into savagery, away from civilisation. The more that went wrong for them, the more savage they became. It was like they had ideas, plans and hope at the beginning; as this was lost, so was the will to be 'normal' and to live a 'normal' life. Some of them were thinking 'I wont make it alive off this Island' which is what caused many of them to give up; fear, be wilderness, and the collapse of society.
Another factor to look at is the war that was going on in the outside world. The theory of this point is that the children may of being acting out what their parents were doing. Ralph at the beginning often mentioned his dad been in the navy, and that he would rescue them (another reasoning of hope).
The first death on the island was the death of 'The boy with the mulberry mark on his face'. Their first success at creating a fire was that successful that it caused half the forest to be burnt down, which was unfortunate, as one of the boys went missing whilst this was happening, so as the forest was burning, the boy got burnt with it. This was purely accidental and upset many of the boys.
Simon was 'murdered' during a tribal dance. The other boys thought it was 'the beast' that had come along, and not Simon. The only boys that actually realised it WASN'T the beast were Ralph and Piggy. The rest were that swept away with the moment actually carried on believing it was the beast. I wouldn't class this as murder though; more of manslaughter as the boys was heading towards total savagery.
Piggy's murder was murder and it was a cruel, mean and evil murder.
"Piggy's arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pigs after it has been killed," and then went limp. Jack stepped forward and calmly announced, "The conch is gone ... I'm chief" Nobody cared apart from Ralph. The murder didn't mean anything to anybody BUT Ralph. Then his time came.........
Darkness fell. Ralph was sleeping in a thicket. At dawn, the stick wielding boys rushed, heaving stones and setting fire to the bush. The chase was on. "Think!" Ralph commanded himself. But he was beyond all reasoning. He "Shot forward... screaming, snarling, bloody... He forgot his wounds, his hunger and thirst, and became fear; hopeless fear on flying feet."
Ralph sprinted for the beach, where he fell on the sand, crying for mercy. When he staggered to his feet, his hope was there in the form of a white-uniformed navel officer, gazing down at him...
This murder was indeed deliberate and almost certainly going to be brutal.
To conclude, I don't think it was any of the factors above. I think it was the Lord Of The Flies. The name giving to the sow's head on the 'stick sharpened at both ends' erected in the forest as an offering to the "beast" after Jacks most brutal hunt. It came to symbolise the primordial instincts of power and cruelty that takes control of Jack's tribe.
The boys (apart from Simon and Ralph) didn't realise that the beast wasn't something you can hunt down and kill. It was the evil inside them that was already there.........
Marie Dzirvinskis
All information taken from 'Spark notes', www.lordoftheflies.co.uk and lord of the flies educational edition.
